Part 9: Wearing a Continuous Glucose Monitor as a non-diabetic Physician: An unrequested oral glucose tolerance test

2019.05.13 Inadvertent Glucose Tolerance Test, Washington, DC USA 9460
2019.05.13 Inadvertent Glucose Tolerance Test, Washington, DC USA 9460 (View on Flickr.com)

The chart above is not the PQRS of an EKG, it’s a blood glucose spike, followed with a brief hypoglycemic episode.

Both events were asymptomatic – I had no idea they happened until I checked continuous glucose monitor readings later.

What must have happened is the diet soda I ordered at our favorite beer garden was delivered as a sugar sweetened version.

I could just imagine the insulin spike that must have been created this one time, and yet, for most Americans, this is happening every day, multiple times a day, and they don’t know it. Experiments with Continuous Glucose Monitors show it:

2018.08.06 Glucotypes reveal new patterns of glucose dysregulation 509
2018.08.06 Glucotypes reveal new patterns of glucose dysregulation 509 (View on Flickr.com)

And national numbers do as well, the fasting blood glucose level of Americans has been rising:

2018.05.29 Low Carbohydrate Meetup, Washington, DC USA 452
2018.05.29 Low Carbohydrate Meetup, Washington, DC USA 452 (View on Flickr.com)

As has our weight. The two are probably related.

2018.05.30 Washington, DC Low Carbohydrate Meetup, Washington, DC USA 01-458
2018.05.30 Washington, DC Low Carbohydrate Meetup, Washington, DC USA 01-458 (View on Flickr.com)

As I mentioned in part 7 of this series, for a person without known diabetes/prediabetes who is fat adapted (via a low-carbohydrate, healthy fat, or #LCHF diet), the response to a carbohydrate load may be different than a person who is carbohydrate adapted or continually seeing a massive deluge of carbohydrates and/or processed foods.

In a person who is not diabetic and specifically not type 1 diabetic and therefore produces insulin, this is not as dangerous as it would be for someone who does not produce insulin.

As has been shown by @DikemanDave – keeping carbohydrate intake managed overall gives a better result.

For me, a resumption back to my #LCHF eating pattern showed a similarly flat curve.

2019.05.13 Inadvertent Glucose Tolerance Test, Washington, DC USA 9673
2019.05.13 Inadvertent Glucose Tolerance Test, Washington, DC USA 9673 (View on Flickr.com)

And maybe the desire to order water from now on in restaurants 🙂 .

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Never skipping in New York, followed by #nutrientdense is better than #energydense meal 👍 (& still #bodyhairpositive) Blood glucose rise is physiologic with exercise, no increase with the meal (glycemic index = 0) #ShotOniPhone #fitnessmotivation #fitfam #instafit #fitness #gayfitness @BarrysBootCamp #NeverSkipToday #Ketosis #KetoAF #Yes2Meat #PlantBased & #PlantFree #KetogenicDiet #DataOverDogma #Optimism #Science #fatadapted #NYC #instaNYC #instafit #CGM #diabetesprevention #fitnessmotivation #Pride2019 #LGBTQ 🇺🇸💪🏳️‍🌈❤️🥦🥩🕊🇮🇱

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Ted Eytan, MD